This…is very, very cool. AKQA has created what they call Mobile Orchestra. With help from the Pacific Chamber Symphonym the agency has made it possible for firends to share a performance of Carol of Bells.
If you gather some friends and point them to Mobile Orchestra, different parts of the performance will appear on each person’s individual device. Quite cool.
Check out the example video below.
Comprised of one part grampa’s comfiness and one part crazy stories kids find on the interwebs, WingAdvertising is offering the ultimate Christmas gift. The YOLO Holiday Sweater. Well, in actuality, a sweater pattern you can give to your grandmother so she can “get her knit on.”
YOLO!
Here’s a quick summary of what we’ve seen so far from some agencies. We’re sure there will be more to follow this week.
– Austin-based GSD&M is celebrating the holidays with a Sweater Soiree. Check out the agency’s collection of client-inspired holiday sweaters. You can vote on your favorite sweater. The sweater with the most votes gets placed on a Frosty the Snowman in the agency’s lobby.
– The Sydney office of VML has released their 2012 digital Christmas card, titled Reindeer Races, a real-world interactive race between four of Santa’s reindeer, streamed live via webcam and played online. The game allows users to take control of a reindeer on a real-life Christmas-themed track, using their keyboard to control its speed while they race against three of their Facebook friends, or computer-controlled ‘bots’.
– Brisbane creative agencies JSA and Smoke Creative have collaborated on an interactive online video experience for the festive season which paints an irreverent vision of Christmas featuring seedy hacker elves, contraband candy and shady backstreet deals.
– Baltimore-based Planit created Holidares, a website which gives visitors a chance to build daily dares that pit Planiteers against each other in a number of holiday-themed stunts. For example, visitors could vote to watch Planit staff endure a game of Twister WHILE dressed as Santa’s elves WHILE barking to the tune of Jingle Bells. Every one of these six outrageous stunts will be captured on video and shared on the website as proof that Planit’s staff lives up to each challenge.
– With the Mayan Calendar predicting an eminent galactic alignment signifying the possible end of days, Traction has created Apocalymas: a 12 day counting down to the end of the world… or maybe not.
– For its holiday shenanigans, Cutwater decided to merge its holiday party and Christmas cards. The result? Cutwater Kissmas Party, a method way to spread some holiday cheer among clients and friends. The site brings the idea of virtual mistletoe, where visitors can smooch and be smooched by strangers using Instagram. By simply hashtagging an image #leftkiss or #rightkiss, people are paired at random.
– Hart is looking for the most obnoxious holiday sweater. The agency wants you to search the web for the craziest holiday sweater ever woven or the worst holiday present you’ve ever seen. You are then asked to upload the image. Judges will narrow it down to their three favorites in the two categories, then online voters will decide 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. Upload yours first and fast, as duplicate entries will not count.
– This year, instead of spending all of their fourth quarter earnings on extravagant gifts for their clients, Lowe Roche has decided to pledge their support to those less fortunate. Their interns. And they’d love your help.
– And then there’s Floyd Hayes. Help the guy out!
At Central Desktop’s Collabosphere 2012, the topic of democratizing the creative process was discussed. The heart of the conversation centered on whether or not (and how much of) the creative process should or should not be extended outside the department.
While there was general consensus for agency-wide collaboration at the outset of the creative process (ie. a good idea can come from anywhere), in the end, one entity (the creative department) has to turn a good idea into a workable idea
Expanding upon that thought, Javelin Technology Director Rachel DeFriend said, “I think creative is a department for a reason. We can all be creative and offer up awesome ideas and I think different perspectives help inspire a creative team and the creative process; I love to bombard them in their brainstorming sessions. But I think creative consistently has to deliver a solution and pull in the people they think they need to pull in, but opening it up to the entire agency as a whole, I think it could create some mediocrity.”
Check out the rest of the discussion here.
Well this is fun. All week, Cleveland-based agency Marcus Thomas has been dunking employees in a vat of egg nog this week to help raise money for United Way. Of course, the charity portion of the stunt is important but the dunk factor is even better.
From 3-5pm each day visitors to the promotional site are able to get in line for a chance to use their mouse to toss a ball at a switch that drops a Marcus Thomas worker in the vat. For each successful shot, the agency will donate $50 to United Way.
‘Tis the season to be jolly, joyous, giving, thankful and, generally, in good spirits. Unless, of course, you are Toronto-based Crush and then it’s all piss, vinegar and vulgarity. Humorous piss, vinegar and vulgarity, of course.
Digital agency Klick Health has created a holiday video in which 280 agency employees enact over 200 memes to the tune of Hello. From some of the most famous internet sensations, like Gangnam Style, Rebecca Black’s Friday and Charlie bit my finger to the most obscure internet memes, Klick’s pretty much covered anything of interest that ever occurred on the internet.
There’s a contest attached to the video whereby viewers who correctly identify the most memes will prizes including a grand prize trip to the destination of the winner’s choosing. Other prizes include a MacBook Air, and an iPad mini. Additional prizes will also be awarded to those who share the video and garner the most views.
T-shaped talent is a term used to define a person’s skill set. If a person has T-shaped talent, they are well-versed in a particular area of expertise (represented by the vertical bar in the T) along with possessing the ability to collaborate with experts across disciplines other than their own and apply that knowledge (represented by the horizontal bar in the T).
One can argue T-shaped talent is the perfect skill set A person who is an expert in one field can be counted on to flawlessly complete tasks in his or her area of expertise. Additionally, they know just enough about other fields to work intelligently and productively with experts in other specialized fields. This saves a company time and money because less time need be spent explaining things and more time will be spent accomplishing things.
If you’re familiar with Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy’s annual holiday greeting, you’ve probably come to the conclusion that the man can talk. And talk. And talk. This year, the holding company decided to have some fun with the video.
The embeddable video below leads to the full video on YouTube. Why? You’ll see when you get there. Try skipping ahead or pausing or changing the volume, the resolution or switching to full screen.
Thanks, Publicis!
Did you know there was an ad agency called Captains of Industry? Did you know Captains of Industry were also business titans at the turn of the century? No, not this recent century. The one before. In any case, check out this video from, yes, Captains of Industry, a Boston-based agency headed by, well, the many heads of Ted Page.
Birmingham-based ad agency Luckie has created a holiday site, Luckie Elf, and will donate $25 to children’s charities each time a person tweets a photo of themselves re-enacting a scene from the movie Elf.
For inspiration, the agency has chosen and described 14 scenes from the film for visitors to re-enact. Agency employees have already had quite a bit of fun as you can see from their own re-enactments.
Birmingham-based ad agency Luckie has created a holiday site, Luckie Elf, and will donate $25 to children’s charities each time a person Instagrams a photo of themselves re-enacting a scene from the movie Elf.
For inspiration, the agency has chosen and described 14 scenes from the film for visitors to re-enact. Agency employees have already had quite a bit of fun as you can see from their own re-enactments.
Here’s a bit of hilarity to brighten your day. Well, that is if you work in an ad agency. Sorry, clients, this time the joke is on you. But give it time. No doubt there is plenty to say about those agency primadonnas.
Central Desktop has put together an infographic highlighting the eight types of agency clients. From The Intruder to The Arsonist to The Ghost to The Henchman, all the stereotypes are covered.
Click here to see the infographic.
As is always the case, the irrefutable CMO math has bitten yet another ad agency in the ass. This time it’s Honda biting RPA. True to form, new Honda CMO, Michael Accavitti, after taking the job last year, said, dumping RPA would be “completely unproductive and unnecessary, RPA is an extension of the Honda family,” flip flopped and uttered this mouthful:
“In the face of a changing media landscape and a hyper-competitive marketplace, our challenge is to create dynamic marketing campaigns that connect and engage consumers with our products and our brands. The review we have initiated will lead to a strong, long-term strategic plan for our brands”
Hmm. A long-term plan that will do better than the year-to-date 24 percent sales increase the brand has experienced? Unlikely.
You know, wouldn’t it be nice if, one day, honesty struck and a CMO said, “Hey, I’m kind of a big deal and I need to flex my muscles to pretend I know what I’m doing so I’m going to fire a perfectly good agency with a great track record, waste a shitload of money on and agency search and then, 18 months later, leave and do it all over again at another brand.”
Of course this sentiment doesn’t apply specifically to Accavitti who from 1994 until 2009 was with Chrysler in various capacities including CEO of Dodge and Lead Marketing Executive for Chrysler. And he’s not just a marketing windbag. He started his 25-year career at Chrysler as an industrial engineer along with positions in production management, finance and street and racing technology. Sounds like a pretty well-rounded, stand up guy.
Perhaps all of this is due to pressure from Honda CEO Takanobu Ito who is eager to have Honda North America increase annul sales from 1.7 million units to 2 million. Perhaps it’s due to internal shenanigans, the details of which we will never fully understand. Having worked in this business as long as I have, one thing is clear, winning and losing clients rarely has anything to do with how well an agency has performed or promises to perform and everything to do with who knows who, who likes who and…most importantly…who can stand working with who.
– Israel wants to combat The Stigma Virus, a sort of reaction to the AIDS virus.
– How do you brew? Partnering with Boston-based strategic planning agency Blitz Media and its client, Breville USA, Struck created a :30 spot that features a colorful cast of characters that capture a particular style of coffee – bold, mild, intense, smooth, strong and light.
– ZenithOptimedia’s latest forecast predicts global ad expenditure will grow 4.1% in 2013, reaching $518 billion by the end of the year.
– Talking cookies tout HGTV shows. Love It or List It. Property Brothers.
That was an easy headline to write. Why? Ask yourself. When was the last time you saw an ad for a mattress that you actually remember. Go on. Think for a minute. Right. Nada, Zip. Nothing.
Now watch these two ads from LA-based Arcana Academy for Sealy. See? The most amazing mattress you have ever seen, right?
Arcana Academy opened a year ago and was founded by former Modernista creative Shane Hutton and former Arnold creative Lee Walters.
Of the new agency, Walters says, “We started Arcana Academy because a window of opportunity had opened – the kind of window that, if it were ever to close, you would spend the rest of your life saying, ‘what would have happened had I jumped through?’ says Walters. “So we did.”
Hey, what other reason do you need to start an ad agency. Let’s just hope they can keep up the good work.
With the bold acknowledgement of common, less-than-legal behavior, Ogily Brussels developed a campaign that placed a recruitment message inside a downloadable file labeled as though it were Adobe Photoshop or another popular creative software suite.
The files were then placed on popular file sharing sites for download. Once downloaded, the file revealed a job offer. The hired candidate also received all the applications he wanted for free.
We love it. And, hey, it might not be all roses in the eyes of those who judge us at end times but it’s also just the way it is. That’s were the fish are and that’s were Ogilvy went to find them.
When I was working for a high tech and B2B ad agency that was experiencing growing pains caused by the transformation from small to mid-sized to large, I developed a traffic and production management system using a Mac and FileMaker Pro. No, really. Seriously! Prior to that system, there were nothing more than memos and email to convey information from account management to creative to production to traffic and back. It was inefficient, and many times information was lost in transit.
The FileMaker Pro system introduced job tickets and a workflow that, to the best of FileMaker Pro’s limited capabilities, aided in making sure the right people saw the right information and that the process was properly documented. This included a listing of those responsible for various aspects of the job, due dates, production specs and, if lucky, the creative brief.
It was far from a perfect system and rife with the limitations of early-stage FileMaker Pro. At other agencies I worked for, trafficking jobs and managing workflow ranged in sophistication from a simple phone call to a handwritten note to typed, four-part forms to email to clunky dumb terminal antiquation.
Read the rest on the Central Desktop blog.
Courtesy of JWT Brazil and Agencia Casa, one version of the U.S. Presidential election will be determined by Rock ‘Em Sock “em robots…powered by tweets! Yes, the agency has cobbled together an app, Tweet Punch Out, that delivers a punch every time a person tweets Obama or Romney. Currently, Romney is leading in hits almost four to one. Read into that whatever you choose.
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